Liked songs not syncing between PC/web apps and iPhone/iPad apps

[PresqueVu]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

iPhone 15 Pro/iPad Pro 3rd gen

Operating System

iOS 17.3/Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Liked songs are not syncing between the PC/Web apps and the iPhone/iPad apps.

Liked songs will sync between the PC and web apps.

Like songs will sync between the iPhone and iPad apps.

To test this I used an album where all the songs on the album were set to Liked.  This was the same on all the apps, PC, web, iPhone and iPad.  

I then removed the Liked status for all songs on the PC app.  This change was reflected in the web app but not the iPhone or iPad app.  

I cleared the cache for all apps which had no effect.

I uninstalled the app from the iPhone and then reinstalled it.  The songs on the iPhone were set to Liked.  I watched as the Liked song ticks came on for each song in the album.  This still did not reflect the Liked status on the PC app.

I removed the Liked status for one song on the iPhone app.  This was immediately reflected in the iPad app but not the PC or web apps.

Thanks,

Toby

[PresqueVu]

Hey, little thing I've tried. Using Mobile app on Android, and then the native .exe app on Win10 (not microsoft store version)

After losing a lot of hope of my devices being synced, i tried one last thing. in the windows app drawer thing (little arrow in the bottom-right next to clock/date and such) find the spotify app>right click>Troubleshooting>Reset app data and restart. it will log you out, and take a little bit to wake back up, but it worked for me. full sync between Android app, Web player (Chrome) and the native desktop app on Win10. Hopefully this works for you!

[Joan]

Hi @PresqueVu,

Thanks for reaching out. Could you please check the following:

• Check if maybe you're logged into two different accounts on the different sets of devices, see these steps
• Test if this same thing happens on different networks across all devices.
• If you have a VPN on any of your devices, disable it as that can cause many desync issues.
• Perform a full clean reinstall across all devices as shown here.

Try those steps and let us know how it goes.

[PresqueVu]

Thanks Joan,

I followed all of these steps but the problem still persists.

I have the album open on my iPhone and on my PC app at the same time.  On the iPhone app, all the songs are set to liked, and on the PC none are set to Liked.  If I play a song on the iPhone, the song highlights on my PC as being played.  The same if I play it on my PC, the iPhone lights up as being played.

If I set a song on the iPhone to unliked and then like it again, it does not appear on my PC as liked.

I have tested this across multiple networks.

I noticed that when i reinstalled the apps on my iPhone and iPad I was not required to login again.

Thanks,

Toby

[PresqueVu]

I just tested again by logging out and uninstalling the iPhone app.  I then reinstalled it and logged in again. Initially, all songs on the album were not set to Liked.  Then they slowly appeared one by one as liked.  This is not reflected on the PC app.

[Joan]

Hi there @PresqueVu,

Thanks for the reply and all your efforts. Do you reboot the app on Desktop after adding songs on your iPhone? If not, please do so, as newly added songs, playlists, etc. do not often immediately reflect on other devices, but restarting the app forces a resync between the two. Also, do all changes continue to be reflected on the webplayer?

Keep us posted.

[user-removed]

I've had this problem before too and I found a little trick that seems to work.

1. Get on your Desktop app and get your other devices apps up too
2. Make a temp playlist
3. Select all songs in your liked playlist and copy it over to it
4. Delete all the songs in your liked songs playlist on the desktop app
5. Check your other devices and make sure all the songs in their liked songs playlist are gone too, cause there seems to be a small chunk of songs that stick on one of the devices that is causing the desync, get rid of them too if they are there
6. Now copy and paste all songs that you saved in that temp playlist back into the liked songs playlist.

[PresqueVu]

Hi Joan,

Yes I have rebooted the PC multiple times as well as the iPhones and iPad.

The liked songs sync on all PC's and web apps but not on the iPad or iPhone.  The iPad and iPhone liked songs sync with each other but the PC's web apps.

Thanks,
Toby

[PresqueVu]

Thanks for the suggestion and I think it's highlighted the problem.  I followed your steps exactly but the issue remained where I had an album on my iPhone where all songs were liked but on the PC only 3 songs were liked.

It turns out that in my Liked Songs playlist on both the PC and the iPhone, the whole album is in the playlist.  However, when i look at this album on the PC only three songs are shwoing up as liked.  It appears that there is a sync issues with the Liked Songs playlist and these songs shwoing as like when you look at the album or song on it's own.

[PresqueVu]

Hi Joan,

Further to my reply above please see the update in my reply below.  It appears the sync issue is between the Liked Songs playlist and these showing as liked for individual albums and songs.

[Yordan]

Thanks for the info @PresqueVu.

Do you have the (+) button instead of the heart only on some of your devices? If so, I think some confusion is created around it.

The green checkmark indicates that the item is saved in Your Library. This could be any of your playlists (including your Liked Songs playlist). You can tap it to get a list of where the song's been added to. More info here.

In any case, a couple of screenshots which show how the album page and the liked songs look across all of your devices, along with a link to the album in question, would be greatly appreciated - that way we can get a clear view of what's happening on your end.

Cheers 🙂

[PresqueVu]

It appears there was an issue with the Liked Songs playlist.  Ages ago I had "liked" all songs on the albums I had added to my library.  Recently I decided to remove these.  I used the Windows app to do this, going to each album, highlighting all the songs, and doing a mass "remove from Liked songs".  The issue was after I had done this they still remained in the Liked Songs playlist but I did not know they were in there.  On the PC and web apps they did not show as Liked (tick or heart) but on the iPhone and iPad they did.  It seems these devices got the Liekd song status from the playlist whereas the PC and web apps were getting it from else.  I have since gone through the Liked Songs playlist and cleaned up the old full album-liked songs from this playlist. Everything is working as normal now where if you like or unlike a song on one platform, it is reflected on all of the others.

[OscarDC]

Hey @PresqueVu,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

We're glad to know that everything is working fine now. We appreciate the time you took following the process and sharing all the details you gather testing it.

In case you need anything else, remember that we're just a post away 🙂

Cheers!

[kiki5802]

This did not work for me. i want to make playlist of all liked songs on phone and pc. the instructions for saving liked songs to playlist using the iphone did not work. 

I shut down my pc last week, but it still only held 27 of 211 liked songs. what do i do?

[xsynthz]

This is happening to me as well. I've added like 5 songs to my liked music playlist over the last two weeks. They show up in the iPhone app but do not appear on the Windows client.

[Vasil]

Hey @xsynthz & @kiki5802,

Can you please confirm you've gone over the steps mentioned in @Joan's first reply?
We'll be on the lookout for your replies in case the issue persists after this 🙂 Many thanks!

[bathory]

It is the same account, if I add the song on PC it shows on Phone but not vice-versa

[justinc1981]

I've also noticed this in the last week as well .. iPhone and web app have the same songs but the desktop client isn't syncing 

is there a way to clear the cache on the desktop app ? or does uninstalling it and reinstalling it do the same thing ?

[Novy]

Hey @justinc1981,

Thanks for reaching out!

You can try performing a clean reinstall of the desktop app by following the steps for your device here. This should clear the cache. 

If that doesn't do the trick, could you send over the exact Spotify version you're currently running?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Gerthew]

Hey,

It's 5 years later, and I've run into this same issue. Webplayer seems to update immediately, but the desktop app on MacOS just refuses to include any songs more recent than 3 weeks ago.

[alyttlebird]

Hi,

I am also facing this problem with my Liked Songs playlist. The Desktop app shows the last song was added 18 Dec 2024 but I have added several songs on the mobile app since then. I have updated the Desktop app and tried much of the above with no luck.

Version: 

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.2.55.235.g5eaa0904